


How Much It Will Hurt

by TheInverseUniverse



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Gen, Hurt Gansey, Hurt/Comfort, I might rewrite this taking Henry in trk into account, I wrote this while reading BLLB, Seriously there's not enough whump in this fandom, The Raven Boys Chapter 33 Coda, aka the scene where Whelk holds Gansey at gunpoint, but rn it doesnt, so NOT trk compliant, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 16:26:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16099391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheInverseUniverse/pseuds/TheInverseUniverse
Summary: Gansey doesn't throw the punch in time, and Whelk lets anger take over.





	How Much It Will Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this over two years ago, back when I had either just started or just finished Blue Lily Lily Blue, so Henry's role and reaction are not compliant with what we learn about him in The Raven King. Basically, I loved this scene and wanted to whump it up. Also, Gansey's phone has service.

“You disgust me,” Whelk said, clutching the book to his chest. “You think you're invincible. Guess what. So did I.”

When he said that, Gansey knew Whelk was going to kill him. That there was no way someone could have that much hatred and bitterness in his voice while holding a gun and not pull the trigger.

Whelk’s face tensed.

For a moment there was no time: just the space between when one breath escaped and another rushed in.

Seven months before Ronan had taught Gansey how to throw a hook.

Hit with your body, not just your fist.

Look where you're punching.

Elbow at ninety degrees.

Don't think about how much it will hurt.

Gansey, I told you: Don't think about how much it will hurt.

It didn't hurt when he hit the ground, or when he saw Whelk standing over him. It only started to hurt when he touched his cheek and saw the blood from where the butt of the gun had split his skin.

The first kick also didn't hurt, neither did the second. It wasn't until the third that he felt the pain. It sucked all the air out of his lungs and made him curl up protectively around his battered organs.

They kept coming. It wasn't until he felt, or heard or maybe both, a crack from one of his ribs that he realized Whelk was indeed going to kill him, just not with a gun.

The fire that shot through his torso motivated him to shout, “Wait! Stop, Mr. Whelk!” and attempt to catch the foot aimed at his face.

The gun pointed at him and Gansey slowly lifted his hands off the offending appendage. He cautiously said, “You're bitter about what you lost, and I understand that.”

“You don't understand anything! You and the other bastards at Aglionby don’t know about anything but yourselves!” Whelk ranted furiously, drawing back his foot again.

Gansey ducked his head behind his hands still raised placatingly. “Okay, I don’t. But I do know that killing me won’t accomplish anything but ensure every police officer in the country will be searching for you. It won’t get you back what you lost.”

“No, it won’t,” spat Whelk, still glaring venomously. “But I’ll feel a hell of a lot better.” He kicked Gansey again, knocking him flat on his back with a thud.

Right before the assault resumed Gansey sat back up and shouted. “But you can still get your old life back!” As he said it he realized Whelk would still have the police after him. He’d killed Noah, Jesus Christ he’d murdered someone when he was just a kid.

Whelk yanked the teenager up by the collar and hissed in his face. “How? You haven’t found Glendower either.”

Gansey grit his teeth, what he was about to do was humiliating. He never thought he’d be using his parent’s money to beg for his life. “My parents have a lot of money, and they’d do anything to make sure I’m safe.”

“Of course,” spat Whelk, staring at him scornfully. “Your money fixes everything!” He threw Gansey into the pig, still waving the gun around as his hands moved with his voice. “Mommy and daddy just open their checkbooks and all your problems disappear!”

“So will yours,” Gansey stood up straight, wincing and using his car to support him, but straight none the less. He regretted hesitating so long to throw that damn punch, it could’ve worked when Whelk was off his guard. Now he had to rely on his words, and hope that his homicidal teacher would listen. “The police will be looking for Noah- Czerny’s killer, but if you have enough money you can get a plane and fly to Dubai or Croatia, or anywhere where the government can’t get to you.”

Whelk appeared to be honestly considering his words but pointed his gun at Gansey’s chest all the same. “Or I sacrifice you to the leyline and get Glendower’s favor.”

“But a ley line doesn’t guarantee Glendower, and neither of us knows how much the favor will do. It could just be land and title in a kingdom that hasn’t existed for centuries,” Gansey stared at the gun and swallowed nervously. His torso and chest were screaming at him to find a hospital full of pain medication, but first, he had to survive.

Whelk didn’t move the gun, but he reached in his pocket and pulled out the stolen phone. “If you call anybody but your parents, or if you tell them who I am or where we are I will put a bullet in you and drive away.”

“Thank god,” breathed Gansey as he sagged in relief. “Yes, I understand.”

Whelk tossed the phone, glaring contemptuously.

Gansey fumbled as he caught, almost dropping it. He looked at the other before nodding and selecting his father in his contacts with shaky hands. He put the phone to his ear and listened as it rang, praying that Richard Gansey II would answer. He didn’t.

“He didn’t answer! This is just leaving clues!” Shouted Whelk furiously. His finger moved from the trigger guard to the trigger itself and Gansey allowed himself to fully panic.

“No, wait! He’s probably in a meeting! If I call him again he’ll know it’s important and answer!” He hurriedly hit redial and lifted the phone again.

This time it was answered on the second ring. “Dick? I just had to leave a very important meeting.”

“Oh thank god you answered, Dad,” said Gansey, trying and failing to keep the panic and relief out of his voice.

Richard Gansey must have heard his son’s distress because his tone shifted immediately from exasperation to intense concern. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Where are you?”

Gansey glanced at Whelk, who was glaring a warning at him. He put a finger over his lips and Gansey nodded before speaking. “Not seriously. And I... can’t tell you.” He winced, not at his injuries but at having to worry his parents so badly.

“What! Is someone there with you? I’m going to call the police, don’t wor-”

Gansey cut him off frantically. “No don’t call them! Hey, get- Ah!” He bounced off the Camaro with a shout and a groan when Whelk grabbed the phone and shoved him away.

“Do not call the police! Wait for another call,” snarled Whelk in an overly hoarse voice before hanging up. He had affected the rough drawl of Henrietta locals in an attempt to disguise his voice.

Gansey held his side and looked at the older man warily. He knew this was a terrible idea. He was still going to die, and all he had accomplished was ensuring his father thought it was his fault for trying to call the police.

“Let’s stay calm, Mr. Whel-”

“No! No!” screamed Whelk, waving the gun around frantically. “This was a terrible plan! I should never have listened to you!”

Gansey closed his eyes, waiting for the bullet. “Just let my dad know it wasn’t his fault. Please,” he whispered softly.

Instead of feeling the fire he expected, he felt a shove. He stumbled back and opened his eyes to see an infuriated Whelk. “This has gone too far! We can’t back out now!”

“We?” scoffed Gansey to himself, and immediately regretted it.

But Whelk wasn’t angry. Or at least he wasn’t anymore angry than earlier. “We need a plan. How much money, and where to send it to.”

“Well how much would you need to buy an international plane ticket and then live comfortably?” asked Gansey cautiously. This whole debacle was both terrifying and bizarre beyond belief.

Whelk nodded as he thought to himself and began pacing. “15 million dollars will be enough to live in luxury my whole life... Shouldn’t be too hard to get together, won’t need to wait for your parents to liquify anything... Yes. And if your idiot of a father didn’t call the police there’s no harm in transferring it to my account, I’ll be out of the country before there’s an opportunity for police to freeze it.”

Gansey nodded, putting on his absolute confidence face. “Okay. I’ll call him again and tell him to transfer the money.”

Whelk handed him the phone and put the gun against his bruised chest for good measure, causing him to hiss slightly. “Fifteen million dollars. Then I let you go. That’s all they need to know.”

Gansey nodded and called his father again.

“Dad?”

The Second’s voice was so full of relief it was palpable. “Oh, Dick. I thought you were- that I’d-”

“No, no!” assured Gansey frantically. He just needed to get through this and make sure his parents saw him again, he could do that. “I’m fine. You just need to transfer some money, and then he’ll let me go.”

“Yes, yes I can do that. Oh Jesus, I never thought this would happen. Are you certain you’re alright? It sounded like he’d hurt you.”

“I’m perfectly fine, Dad,” reassured Gansey, pointedly ignoring his still smarting ribs. Whelk tapped his wrist and shoved a piece of paper with a bank account number on it at him. “Uh, okay. You need to wire fifteen million dollars to this number.” As he read off the number twice to make sure his father got it correct he looked over at Whelk, who seemed to be more anxious than before.

There was the sound of keys clacking from the other side of the call, and then Richard Gansey spoke again. “I’m all set to make the transfer. But first I want to talk to him.”

“Um, I’m not sure that’s a good idea...” cautioned Gansey. Whelk was extremely volatile and he wasn’t sure whatever his dad said wouldn’t push him over the edge. Just with what he had said the teacher was looking livid again. “He doesn’t want anyone to hear his voice.”

“Jesus Christ it’s someone I would recognize... You’re my son, at least give me the chance to ask for your safety.”

“Can I put it on speaker phone? He wants to say something to you,” Gansey asked hesitantly.

Whelk glared at him and nodded curtly.

Gansey nodded and gave his father a final warning. “Don’t antagonize him and don’t tell him to do anything.” Then he switched the call to speakerphone and held out the phone. “He can hear you now.”

“I don’t know who you are,” said Richard Gansey II in a voice carefully tailored to sound confident yet not imposing. “And I’m sure you’d like to keep it that way. So I’m not going to ask you to say anything. Just ask you to listen. I’ll give you anything you want. But I’m begging you please, don’t hurt my son.”

Whelk looked at him sourly and Gansey switched it back to normal mode and said shakily. “Thanks, Dad. You should send the money now. I’m really sorry about all of this.”

“None of this is your fault, Dick,” said the elder Gansey softly. There was a firm click from his end. “I sent it, everything’s going to be alright. I love you, son.”

Gansey breathed out shakily, bogged down by guilt for having to pull his family into this. “I love you too, Dad.” He hung up and slumped back against the Camaro, trying to regain control of his emotions.

“Well?” demanded Whelk urgently. “I didn’t tell you to hang up!”

“He sent it,” said Gansey. “You can check your bank account.”

Whelk glared and finally lowered the gun. “Obviously I will.” He pulled out his own phone and must have found everything in order since he looked up with a grin. “Maybe this wasn’t such a horrible plan.”  
Gansey nodded wearily, feeling utterly drained. “My car’s broken down. If you just drive off I can’t follow you.” He held out his phone, knowing it would just be taken again.

“Risky, risky, risky...” muttered Whelk as he began pacing again.

Gansey tracked the pacing nervously. “Mr. Whelk... a gunshot brings the police before you have time to get out of the country. Just leave.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

Before Gansey had time to do anything, the butt of the gun smashed into his head.

\------

The first thing he noticed when he woke up was that not much time had passed. Actually, the first thing he noticed was that his head was killing him. He groaned and sat up with a hand pressed to his forehead. His hand came away wet, confirming his theory that he hadn’t been unconscious for very long. That was good, it meant there was most likely no brain damage.

He stumbled to his feet, using the Pig to support him. A wave of nausea hit him and leaned to the side to retch. After he finished vomiting, he sat down on the ground and fought down a panic attack. The night’s events were catching up to him. Oh god, Whelk had tried to kill him. Had tried to beat him to death. He was an awful human being, he had basically written his own ransom note.

His breath sped up and his vision blurred. His parents were going to hate him, he’d terrified them. Whelk had gotten away, he’d basically handed his escape plan to him. Hell, he’s actually told him what to do to get away with killing Noah. He’d let a murderer escape.

After what could’ve been a minute or an hour, Gansey regained control. At least no one has been around to see him melt down. He stood up shakily and realized he had to find a phone and let his family know he was alive and safe. Then he had to get to a hospital, his rib was cracked and he most likely had a concussion.

He winced and held his side as he slowly made his way to the road. He saw headlights approaching in the distance and held out a hand. Hopefully, the novelty of an Aglionby boy hitchhiking would be enough to pique the drivers' curiosity if him being covered in blood wasn’t enough to get someone to stop.

The car, unmistakably an Aglionby student’s, pulled to a stop next to him and the window rolled down to reveal Henry Cheng. “Gansey? Jesus Christ, are you okay? Get in.”

Gansey nodded gratefully and climbed in clumsily. Definitely a concussion. “Thanks, Henry.”  
“Did you crash the Pig?” Henry frowned and looked him over for serious injuries.

Gansey just shook his head and leaned back with his eyes closed, reveling in the small sense of normalcy from being with a classmate. “Can I borrow your phone?”

“Sure thing,” said Henry as he handed it over. “Did you get robbed or something?”

Gansey chuckled mirthlessly in a breathy voice. “I guess you could say that.” He dialed his father’s number and held the phone up to his ear. It was answered before the first ring had even finished.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Dick? Oh, thank God you’re alright! We’ve all been so worried.”

Guilt hit him harder than the gun had. “I’m fine. A kid from school saw me on the side of the road and picked me up.”

“Good, good. Have him take you to the hospital. I refuse to believe you’re ‘fine’ until the best doctor in the country signs off on it.”

Gansey mouthed ‘hospital’ at Henry and gave him an apologetic look. The teenager nodded started driving, mouthing back ‘of course’. “Yeah, we’re on our way. I’m, um, I’m really sorry.”

“No, you don’t have anything to apologize for. I’m sorry for putting you in danger,” the guilt in his father’s voice only made his worse.

“No, Dad. Don’t you dare feel guilty. I’ll explain everything later but I need you to know it had absolutely nothing to do with you. Can I talk to Mom and Helen?”

The older Gansey sighed but relented. “I have a hard time believing that, but I’ll put off any destructive behaviors until we get to Henrietta. Here’s your mother.”

After Gansey assured his mother that he wasn’t seriously hurt, and agreed that his sister would kill him herself if he ever scared her like that again he hung up and handed the phone back to its owner. “Thanks.”

Henry nodded and stared at him. “That sounded a lot heavier than getting robbed.”

Gansey blew out a long breath. “It was more my parents getting robbed through me.”

“Oh, holy shit,” Henry understood what he meant immediately. It had never happened, but kids at Aglionby joked about ransom all the time. Gansey always was ahead of the curve.  
He nodded and scrubbed his hands across his face, wincing when the movement pulled at his ribs. “Yeah. I’m sure it’ll be all over the news tomorrow.”

“These damn locals. Desperate to the last,” muttered Henry murderously.

Gansey blinked, but it made sense. Most people would assume a poor Virginia native would be more likely to do something like that. “No, it wasn’t a local. It was Barrington fucking Whelk.”

Henry stared at him, disbelief plastered across his face. “You’re serious? Oh my- damn. I knew he was a creep but wow.”

“Yeah,” sighed Gansey. “Bastard even killed another student while he was at Aglionby.”

Henry shook his head. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll live,” shrugged Gansey, who then regretted the motion when it again pulled on his hurt rib.

Henry nodded and drove silently, obviously not knowing what to say. They pulled up the ER entrance a few minutes later, and the other boy jumped out of the car to open the door for Gansey before he could even reach for the handle.

“I can manage, but thanks,” Gansey climbed out, surprised at how shaky he still was. He blinked rapidly, trying to get the starbursts out of his eyes from standing up.

“Well you look like shit,” supplied Henry in what was probably an attempt at levity, but it was drowned out by the seriousness of the situation.

Gansey shot him a grin that probably looked more pained than anything with his swollen cheek. “Not so handsome yourself, Cheng.”

Henry rolled his eyes and grabbed Gansey’s arm, helping him through the door of the ER. “No complaining, Dick. I’m not having you fall on your face on my watch.”

Gansey rolled his eyes but was grateful nonetheless, he wasn’t looking forward to attempting to balance all the way in. “Really? You might finally get some girls if they’re not looking at my mug.”

“Don’t tempt me, Gansey,” chuckled Henry as he deposited him in a chair near the receptionist’s desk. He walked up to the nurse sitting there, his face a mask of authority and concern. “Excuse me, my friend’s been attacked. I think he might have a concussion, and he needs a doctor right away.”

The nurse looked over at Gansey who was squinting against the light in the room with blood on his face and immediately gave Henry forms to fill out and paged a doctor.  
\------

When Gansey woke up the first thing he noticed was that he was in a hospital room. The next was that it was full of people. He blinked and sat up, wincing as he looked around. His family had apparently commandeered an extra chair so that all three could hold a vigil next to his bed.

“Dick!” shouted Helen when she noticed he was awake. She hugged him, making him flinch. “Oh, sorry. Your ribs.”

“It’s fine,” assured Gansey as he waited for the pain to die down. “How long was I asleep?”

“Only a few hours,” answered Mrs. Gansey. “We thought we’d let you rest.”

Gansey didn’t miss the guilt in her and his father’s eyes. “Stop blaming yourselves.”

“We should have made sure you were safer. And if it wasn’t for our money that awful man wouldn’t have hurt you,” explained Richard.

Gansey shook his head again. “No, you don’t understand what happened. Everything with the ransom and all that was all my fault.”

“No, it wasn’t. Don’t bla-” Helen started but Gansey cut her off.

“No, let me explain,” he commanded, gaining an irritated look from his sister. “Whelk was after Glendower, and he must have seen an opportunity when my car broke down to steal my journal. The one with all the research in it. And he had me tell him where I’d been, and he figured out that I was the one that found that body. God, he killed his classmate for a damn ritual to find the leyline. And so he-” Gansey broke off and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

His mother squeezed his hand and smiled. “Take your time, sweetie.”

Gansey nodded and started again. “He put the gun on my head and I thought he was going to shoot me,” he paused and took another deep breath before continuing. “But he didn’t. He knocked me down and started kicking me. I just- he was going to kill me and I had to do something. So I got him to stop for a second and I convinced him that killing me was only going to get the police after him. Then he wanted to kill me like he did Noah, but I convinced him not to since a leyline doesn’t guarantee Glendower’s favor. I’m really sorry but I had to convince him it would be better for him if I was alive.”

“So you told him to call Dad,” supplied Helen softly.

Gansey nodded, not meeting any of their eyes. “I’m sorry, I basically planned his getaway for him.”  
“Dick,” said his father gently, getting him to look up. “No one’s upset with you. You did what you had to to survive. And you did, which is all that matters.”

Gansey nodded slowly and shrugged, looking down again. “I guess.”

\------

The next time Blue saw Gansey was at her kitchen table. As the conversation progressed she could have sworn she’d seen a mask she didn’t know was there fall away. It was only for a second, and when it was back she wasn’t sure what she saw underneath.


End file.
